Uppity Wisconsin

We suggested earlier that highways must not require any tax support, since Scott Walker supports highways but wants to reject $823-million for rail (and about 5,000 jobs that go with it) because it might require some operating subsidy.

Well, we were wrong.

It turns out that Wisconsin roads actually do get a little money from taxpayers - and not just state taxes, either. Not by a long shot.

This analysis, based on Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) data, shows that Wisconsinites are shelling out nearly $1.5 billion a year in property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes to pay for the existing road system--over 40% of the entire cost of the combined local/state road system.

That ain't hay. But I digress. Hay is for horses, which has nothing to do with this issue.

BusStop. Report from Michael Cudahy upon meeting with Barrett and Walker.

At the October 14 meeting of the UEDA Coalition for Advancing Transit Meeting, Michael Cudahy, philanthropist and lover of Milwaukee, presented his Streetcar Backbone proposal to rejuvenate Milwaukee public transportation. He described the meeting he had with the two leaders of Milwaukee: Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker. Mr. Cudahy summarized this meeting in a memo, which BusStop proudly reprints.  It was Mr. Cudahy's explicit wish that we feel free to circulate this wherever we wished.

To: Scott Walker, Tom Barrett,
Copies to: Tim Sheehy, Julia Taylor, Mark Kaminski
From: Michael J. Cudahy
Subject: Public Transportation
Date; August 8th, 2008

Recently, I asked Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker to meet with me and see if I could "broker a deal" relative to the long standing dispute they've had about public transportation in this community.Yesterday, on August 7th, 2008, these gentlemen and I meet privately and, perhaps, made some progress in this regard.

This week I turn my blog over to a visitor.  There are a couple of conservatives who know how to conserve. Paul gets it right here.

Free Congress Foundation Commentary

Political Cards, Joker and Otherwise

http://www.freecongress.org/

By Paul M. Weyrich

August 7, 2008

This past week we have heard non-stop about the race card. This is one of the most long-running uses of it in the political process. I first heard the term used when President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to force a reluctant Congress to pass a Great Society-type program in 1964 by invoking the memory of his predecessor, President John F. Kennedy. "He is using the JFK card," we were told. Then there was President Richard M. Nixon's China card. And when President Ronald W. Reagan walked away from an arms deal with Mikhail Gorbachev, pundits said Reagan was playing the Star Wars card. And so on.

I began to think of what card I could play if I were running for or had been elected President. I am not into cards myself so this is a difficult assignment. If I were running against Congress I would invoke the joker card.

From the UEDA Summit

At the Urban Economic Development Association's 7th Annual Community Development Summit, a citizen asked: Should we consider changes in SEWRPC and RTA governance?

A panelist, sounding a bit like talk radio hosts lecturing that politically incorrect caller they so love to skewer, used the moment to respond to a question no one asked.

The other panel members sat in stoned (stunned?) silence after the Panelist's unfortunate personal attack on the citizen.

What a sight.

Well and good that "Cooperation" was the word of the day.

And Cooperation should at least mean taking a question at face value, or taking a clumsy citizen question (like they do on Wisconsin Public Radio) and making it a question that any panel member can understand. That is grace; that is cooperation.

So, what did this benighted citizen ask of the esteemed panel?

Mr. Citizen asked about governance – pointing out how our two transit-planning bodies do not have elected representation, he asked if they might.

Milwaukee County is sick, with a disease that could be fatal for our beautiful city.

When sick, it does matter how you respond. Chest pain can be heart burn or heart attack. We might deny the fatal symptom because Tums are handy and appear to bring relief.

The symptom is our wretched discussion of transportation. Freeway, bus, bicycle, automobile, rollerblade, rail, truck, skateboard, foot, boat.

When a symptom is fed with palliatives we feel better because the pain goes away, but not the problem. This virus spreads with illusions - those pleasantries devoid of research.